president obama was a state legislator in illinois. and a lot of the troops on the battlefield, they were in middle school. so we decided to come back, see where things stand. how solid is the u.s. exit strategy? we started by going to the heart of the taliban, the place where 9/11 was inspired. southern afghanistan, famous for its poppies, the taliban, and some of this war's toughest battles. lieutenant general james terry is the operational commander of the war. he agreed to take us into the notorious horn of pangway to see where we stand 11 years into this war. where we are right now, essentially this is the taliban homeland. >> we're headed right into it. >> we head over rich farm lands in kandahar province, making our way atop a strategically important hill top. >> this is looking back down over the district. >> it's a place where taliban fighters largely controlled until the u.s. troop surge of 2010. >> actually got in here and got into a pretty significant fight, a couple thousand taliban. the task force orion along task force 3